Aug 2026 - Air Service Experience Journal

doubletwist

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Hopefully this is something others may find useful. I'm going through a warranty service incident for my 2025 AT (plus a few other items) and I thought it might be good to have a semi-real-time narration of what the process entails and how everything goes.

I know this won't be an example of everyone's service experience, and should I encounter any issues, hopefully the service capacity will continue to be addressed by the new leadership. This is just a snapshot of what the service center experience is RIGHT NOW with the Houston service center.


## Day 1 (ish) Wed 2026-08-19

Our story actually begins last week (well, not really but we'll address that in a moment) when I pulled into my garage and got an alert on the dashboard that the parking brake may not be engaged, and that the vehicle may roll, and this suggested I park someplace flat.

I did a brake+steering wheel reboot in the hopes that it would clear, but it did not. I decided to let the car sleep and see if that cleared it.

A few hours later, I needed to go pick up the kiddo from school. The alert was still there but since it said the brake wasn't engaged, I figured it was safe enough to run to the school and back since I wouldn't need to park or leave the vehicle. So I set off...

Just as I was about to turn into the school parking lot (about 1.5-2 miles tops), I noticed smoke coming from the left rear wheel. That's when I realized the brake WAS engaged. I pulled into the parking lot and stopped in the first available space. Just as I was pulling into the parking lot, two additional alerts popped up on the dash. (See attached)


While I was waiting for the kiddo to come out, I called roadside assistance, and I called my wife to come pick up the kiddo since I'm sure she didn't want to sit in the car waiting for a tow truck.

They were able to dispatch a tow truck, which to about 2 hours later (rush hour in DFW sucks). Really? My only complaint there was that for some reason they order with dollies, instead of a flatbed, which would have been fine There aren't as many of those around here so it took longer.

While waiting, I also contacted customer service and asked about a loaner or rental. Initially they just told me that when the service center contacted me, they would arrange for a loaner.

The tow arrived a couple hours later and per Lucid, they towed my vehicle back to my house, and I was told that I would get another call from Lucid to schedule an actual transport to bring the car down to Houston (about 250 miles away).

Later that evening I called customer support back again. they called me back fairly quickly. I had to ask them for a rental to bridge the gap while I waited to hear from the service center. Since Enterprise has NO EVs available within like a 200 mile radius (not even the exotics locations) they okayed me to get something from anywhere with a $450 limit. So the next day I went and got a Volvo C40 from Budget. Its not terrible. It drives fairly nice, but it's got less room and the range is garbage.

## Mon 2026-08-24 ~6pm

I got a call that showed up on my caller ID as "World of Khaos" (wtf?). It was the transport driver (he apparently also owns a haunted house somewhere around here). He arranged for him to come pick up my car on Tuesday the 25th around lunch time. I mentioned my need for a longer term loaner and he said he'd have someone from the service center call.

## Tues 2026-08-25

This morning I got a call from Irving at the Houston SC. He was very helpful, to the degree possible. He tried to find me an EV with Enterprise, even contacting several exotics locations but like me was unsuccessful. So it looks like I'll be stuck with an ICE vehicle while my Air is in service.

He did mention he would try to see if they could get me an actual loaner. He mentioned that they had gotten some more vehicles in in as a loner fleet, but that they weren't ready yet. And I suspect I'm not first in line. They also (this is my own guess) are probably mostly for the folks in the Houston area, since I'm sure Lucid would rather not ship loaner vehicles all over the place.

He did mention hope that things would get better when the Dallas service center opened in October. He said they were supposed to have something like 13 bays, which I guess is quite a bit more than they have in Houston. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that in case I have any future service center needs.

I'll be picking up whatever my new rental is tomorrow at lunch, and returning the Volvo to Budget.

I don't know exactly what vehicle they will actually have available for me, hopefully at least something in a similar luxury sedan range as what I'm used to with the Air. I'll provide an update on that tomorrow.

I also texted him letting him know that I had two additional things I wanted done since they would have the vehicle, because I tried to contact them previously to arrange something and I couldn't get a hold of anyone in Houston or the Dallas mobile dispatch.

1. I've requested that they also do my 24,000 mile service.
2. I requested that they inspect the right front suspension, after my incident with the pothole that bent the wheel. I want to know if there's any hidden damage that I need to bring to my insurance company to address.

In the meantime, it's now 5:00 p.m., And I haven't heard anything from the transport guy. So I'm about to contact him and see if he's going to actually make it today or not.
 

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My whole service experience took a weird twist today too, I got some email from a guy in mediation offering me $2000 payment to not take them to court I think? It was a really weird email, I don't think he really knew what was going on. I looked him up and he's a software guy not a mediation guy. So maybe they are having other departments help to catch up?

As far you particular situation goes...they all use brokers to do car shipping, and you car can get unloaded and loaded up a bunch of times in the process. Sometimes the shippers are really good, sometimes they are weird. Its not Lucid that makes the decision on that one, its whatever broker takes the offer Lucid makes for shipping. I hate shipping cars, and I'm sure Lucid hates it too. But that one is not their fault.
 
As far you particular situation goes...they all use brokers to do car shipping, and you car can get unloaded and loaded up a bunch of times in the process. Sometimes the shippers are really good, sometimes they are weird. Its not Lucid that makes the decision on that one, its whatever broker takes the offer Lucid makes for shipping. I hate shipping cars, and I'm sure Lucid hates it too. But that one is not their fault.
For sure. It was just a very odd thing to see on my caller ID. I almost didn't answer it.

When my car was shipped from New York to King of Prussia, apparently either the original tow truck or the transport damaged the wheels so the service center replaced all four wheels.

Hopefully that doesn't happen again.
 
The transport finally arrived about 7:20pm. As I check the location of my car this evening, it sure seems like he's taking the long way around to Houston.
 

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You drove 2 miles with the parking brake engaged? Didn't it feel incorrect?
 
Another thought I forgot to mention. I realized that by switching to a lowest bidder type of transport , they really kind of tarnish their image a bit, because not only do you not really know when the car is good to get picked up, they also have no control over what quality of transport and trailer shows up.

On this case, the trailer seemed like it had seen better days. The ramp up was groaning like a dying whale and I was really concerned that it was going to collapse under the weight of a 5000lb EV.

On the whole it was a less than "luxury" experience, and certainly doesn't present the "luxury brand" optics that one might be led to expect in marketing materials.
 
Today's update. After taking the long way around , the transport has delivered my vehicle to Lucid. I got the text notification about 2:43pm, about the same time as I was diving home in the rental vehicle from Enterprise (after returning the Volvo to Budget).

Basically the only vehicle they had was a Mercedes GLE 350 SUV. Pretty much the only good thing about this is the Burmeister sound system of great, and interior room is similar to my Air, though not nearly as comfortable.

Pretty much everything else about it is a major disappointment. It's uncomfortable, loud (even beyond the engine, just sheer road noise), I'm only getting 23.3mpg and I nearly got in a wreck merging onto the highest because when I pressed down on the gas pedal to go, I got ZERO acceleration for a solid 2 seconds while the cars were barreling up behind me.

I'm not sure it'll fit in my garage yet either.

I may give it a few more days, but I'm tempted to ask Lucid if I can just return the car to Enterprise and just let them reimburse me for a mid-tier EV from Avis/Budget instead.

Truthfully, I'd rather rent the cheapest EV on the market than drive this "Luxury" SUV.
 
That sounds like an arduous process. Just thought i'd share mine. I had an alert come up and called service. It was a yellow general alert. We did some diagnosis over the phone and could not determine the issue. They scheduled a transport from me in Sarasota to Riviera beach, fl. that is about 3+hr drive. They picked up my grand touring and delivered a brand new air touring. for my use. I got a call a day later that there was some battery cell issue and they were replacing the entire battery. It took a week to get the battery in and remove and reinstall. They scheduled the dropoff/pickup 2 days later. All in all a pretty phenomenal experience. If only there was a closer service center things would have been a bit more expedient.
 
That sounds like an arduous process. Just thought i'd share mine. I had an alert come up and called service. It was a yellow general alert. We did some diagnosis over the phone and could not determine the issue. They scheduled a transport from me in Sarasota to Riviera beach, fl. that is about 3+hr drive. They picked up my grand touring and delivered a brand new air touring. for my use. I got a call a day later that there was some battery cell issue and they were replacing the entire battery. It took a week to get the battery in and remove and reinstall. They scheduled the dropoff/pickup 2 days later. All in all a pretty phenomenal experience. If only there was a closer service center things would have been a bit more expedient.
It's really disheartening to hear folks being served by other service centers getting a real loaner by default while some of us are struggling to get in touch at all and then the up with a crappy rental (and all the time out of our day to get it) instead.
 
it appears the service issues are location dependent. I have had awesome service with King of Prussia( Dana was great service coordinator with the every day updates). However, I couldn’t get East Rutherford location to respond to my last service call.
 
Another thought I forgot to mention. I realized that by switching to a lowest bidder type of transport , they really kind of tarnish their image a bit, because not only do you not really know when the car is good to get picked up, they also have no control over what quality of transport and trailer shows up.

On this case, the trailer seemed like it had seen better days. The ramp up was groaning like a dying whale and I was really concerned that it was going to collapse under the weight of a 5000lb EV.

On the whole it was a less than "luxury" experience, and certainly doesn't present the "luxury brand" optics that one might be led to expect in marketing materials.
Oh ha man let me tell you the first trailer that tried to pick my car up last time couldn’t figure out how to get it on the trailer. I watched it on camera as they tried and failed and gave up. Then they sent another guy with like a I U Haul trailer that got it on there. Then…took it to Walmart, and Autozone, and then it sat overnight at his house on a U Haul trailer. 3 of 4 wheels were also damaged.

Nice Lucid.
 
It's really disheartening to hear folks being served by other service centers getting a real loaner by default while some of us are struggling to get in touch at all and then the up with a crappy rental (and all the time out of our day to get it) instead.
Depends on availability.....same with every other car company
 
Hopefully this is something others may find useful. I'm going through a warranty service incident for my 2025 AT (plus a few other items) and I thought it might be good to have a semi-real-time narration of what the process entails and how everything goes.

I know this won't be an example of everyone's service experience, and should I encounter any issues, hopefully the service capacity will continue to be addressed by the new leadership. This is just a snapshot of what the service center experience is RIGHT NOW with the Houston service center.


## Day 1 (ish) Wed 2026-08-19

Our story actually begins last week (well, not really but we'll address that in a moment) when I pulled into my garage and got an alert on the dashboard that the parking brake may not be engaged, and that the vehicle may roll, and this suggested I park someplace flat.

I did a brake+steering wheel reboot in the hopes that it would clear, but it did not. I decided to let the car sleep and see if that cleared it.

A few hours later, I needed to go pick up the kiddo from school. The alert was still there but since it said the brake wasn't engaged, I figured it was safe enough to run to the school and back since I wouldn't need to park or leave the vehicle. So I set off...

Just as I was about to turn into the school parking lot (about 1.5-2 miles tops), I noticed smoke coming from the left rear wheel. That's when I realized the brake WAS engaged. I pulled into the parking lot and stopped in the first available space. Just as I was pulling into the parking lot, two additional alerts popped up on the dash. (See attached)


While I was waiting for the kiddo to come out, I called roadside assistance, and I called my wife to come pick up the kiddo since I'm sure she didn't want to sit in the car waiting for a tow truck.

They were able to dispatch a tow truck, which to about 2 hours later (rush hour in DFW sucks). Really? My only complaint there was that for some reason they order with dollies, instead of a flatbed, which would have been fine There aren't as many of those around here so it took longer.

While waiting, I also contacted customer service and asked about a loaner or rental. Initially they just told me that when the service center contacted me, they would arrange for a loaner.

The tow arrived a couple hours later and per Lucid, they towed my vehicle back to my house, and I was told that I would get another call from Lucid to schedule an actual transport to bring the car down to Houston (about 250 miles away).

Later that evening I called customer support back again. they called me back fairly quickly. I had to ask them for a rental to bridge the gap while I waited to hear from the service center. Since Enterprise has NO EVs available within like a 200 mile radius (not even the exotics locations) they okayed me to get something from anywhere with a $450 limit. So the next day I went and got a Volvo C40 from Budget. Its not terrible. It drives fairly nice, but it's got less room and the range is garbage.

## Mon 2026-08-24 ~6pm

I got a call that showed up on my caller ID as "World of Khaos" (wtf?). It was the transport driver (he apparently also owns a haunted house somewhere around here). He arranged for him to come pick up my car on Tuesday the 25th around lunch time. I mentioned my need for a longer term loaner and he said he'd have someone from the service center call.

## Tues 2026-08-25

This morning I got a call from Irving at the Houston SC. He was very helpful, to the degree possible. He tried to find me an EV with Enterprise, even contacting several exotics locations but like me was unsuccessful. So it looks like I'll be stuck with an ICE vehicle while my Air is in service.

He did mention he would try to see if they could get me an actual loaner. He mentioned that they had gotten some more vehicles in in as a loner fleet, but that they weren't ready yet. And I suspect I'm not first in line. They also (this is my own guess) are probably mostly for the folks in the Houston area, since I'm sure Lucid would rather not ship loaner vehicles all over the place.

He did mention hope that things would get better when the Dallas service center opened in October. He said they were supposed to have something like 13 bays, which I guess is quite a bit more than they have in Houston. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that in case I have any future service center needs.

I'll be picking up whatever my new rental is tomorrow at lunch, and returning the Volvo to Budget.

I don't know exactly what vehicle they will actually have available for me, hopefully at least something in a similar luxury sedan range as what I'm used to with the Air. I'll provide an update on that tomorrow.

I also texted him letting him know that I had two additional things I wanted done since they would have the vehicle, because I tried to contact them previously to arrange something and I couldn't get a hold of anyone in Houston or the Dallas mobile dispatch.

1. I've requested that they also do my 24,000 mile service.
2. I requested that they inspect the right front suspension, after my incident with the pothole that bent the wheel. I want to know if there's any hidden damage that I need to bring to my insurance company to address.

In the meantime, it's now 5:00 p.m., And I haven't heard anything from the transport guy. So I'm about to contact him and see if he's going to actually make it today or not.
Seems like a pretty good service. Only complaint you seem to have is you didn't get a Lucid loaner. At least they gave you a rental.
 
my guy came with a flatbed truck that had lucid tarped sidest (which allowed the sides to be opened to help strap the car down.)
 
I couldn't get an EV loaner from Enterprise when I brought my car in for 24,000 mile maintenance and CCCv2 upgrade. I had been quoted 2-7(!) weeks to get the work performed, so the loaner mattered a lot to me. I first chose an Audi SUV, which was horrible, but I called the next day and they said I could come back in and get an EV, so I ended up with a Rivian R1S, which was a lot more fun (but an electricity hog, even in Econo mode).

The good news is that the work was done in two weeks, not seven. Moral of the story, you can't go back to ICE and, once you've driven a Lucid, you're too spoiled for most (not all?) EVs.
 
I couldn't get an EV loaner from Enterprise when I brought my car in for 24,000 mile maintenance and CCCv2 upgrade. I had been quoted 2-7(!) weeks to get the work performed, so the loaner mattered a lot to me. I first chose an Audi SUV, which was horrible, but I called the next day and they said I could come back in and get an EV, so I ended up with a Rivian R1S, which was a lot more fun (but an electricity hog, even in Econo mode).

The good news is that the work was done in two weeks, not seven. Moral of the story, you can't go back to ICE and, once you've driven a Lucid, you're too spoiled for most (not all?) EVs.
Yeah, I'm never buying an ICE car again....
 
Yeah, I'm never buying an ICE car again....
So much this. This SUV is killing me. And smells like old dog to boot. I've been calling Enterprise but they don't have any "nice" cars in stock at all, other than more giant luxury SUVs, 2 door sports cars, or an econobox.

I would've been at least bee tempted by the sports car if it weren't a BMW. I'm boycotting them for life though.
 
Got the DocuSign email last night with the Service Estimate and Authorization.

Obviously the warranty isssue (rear brakes won't release) is $0.

- Alignment check - $78 - this is to check things are okay after the Texarkana pothole incident. Will include inspection of the right front suspension

- 24k mile service - $575 - main bummer is I'm betting they'd have to flush the rear brakes anyway for the warranty work and that's the bulk of the cost of the service, so I'm kind of paying for half of something that they'd be doing anyway, but it's an edge case and not worth fighting at this point.

Total estimate : $666.68 (man they were so close!)

I haven't gotten any time estimate yet for how long they expect to have the vehicle.

As far as the rental vehicle is concerned, I was able to swap out the boat (SUV) but all they had was a 2 door convertible. It's an improvement, at least I'm not getting seasick from the sway, but a little to far in the other direction as far as size is concerned. They are supposed to let me know if any sedans become available. Though I'll still keep calling each day to double check.
 
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